[aravaioli]

Got my BTR7 yesterday and the power measurements found in another forum didn't lie: it is not more powerful than my BTR5 unless you select the "boost" option, only available through the Fiio app, where it gets a very modest advantage. SOUND IS VERY SIMILAR and possibly a bit less congested than the BTR5 in some situations.
Mine is going back to the seller but I want to be clear: it is a good product. But I am disappointed at Fiio for its misrepresentation of power output in its specifications.
Nothing like trying yourself, do a favour to yourself and forget the various YouTube promoters. If I didn't have the 5 I would have probably kept it.
However the iFi Go blu has an evident formfactor advantage and the Qudelix has that outstanding app.....

In terms of volume my experience with my Focal Clear Mg with balanced cable to reach 80db was:
BTR5 = BTR7 (40/60 volume)
QUDELIX 5K (90/100 volume)
IFI GO BLU (75/100 volume)

BTR7 with boost would need a volume of 37/60.

With my Arya v2:
BTR5: VOLUME 55/60
BTR7 boost on: Volume 45/60
BTR7 boost off: Volume 54/60

 

[Andrew_WOT]

The DAC chip inside BTR7 only comes with two selectable filter options (which are all you got in the setting). BTR5's DAC comes with different set of filters option. While it is technically not impossible to add your own digital filters, it involves advanced programming and hardware that only a small handful of manufacturers ever bother to do. In short, it is possible but not practical - hence why those filters option on BTR7 and BTR5 are not something FiiO adds to the system but actually already comes pre-installed by the DAC chip maker.

Yep, only these two filters on this DAC chip.
https://www.esstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ES9219-Datasheet-v1.1.pdf

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Got my BTR7 yesterday and the power measurements found in another forum didn't lie: it is not more powerful than my BTR5 unless you select the "boost" option, only available through the Fiio app, where it gets a very modest advantage. SOUND IS VERY SIMILAR and possibly a bit less congested than the BTR5 in some situations.
Mine is going back to the seller but I want to be clear: it is a good product. But I am disappointed at Fiio for its misrepresentation of power output in its specifications.
Nothing like trying yourself, do a favour to yourself and forget the various YouTube promoters. If I didn't have the 5 I would have probably kept it.
However the iFi Go blu has an evident formfactor advantage and the Qudelix has that outstanding app.....

In terms of volume my experience with my Focal Clear Mg with balanced cable to reach 80db was:
BTR5 = BTR7 (40/60 volume)
QUDELIX 5K (90/100 volume)
IFI GO BLU (75/100 volume)

BTR7 with boost would need a volume of 37/60.

With my Arya v2:
BTR5: VOLUME 55/60
BTR7 boost on: Volume 45/60
BTR7 boost off: Volume 54/60

There was discussion about this earlier, starting from here.

 

[Orfik]

The DAC chip inside BTR7 only comes with two selectable filter options (which are all you got in the setting). BTR5's DAC comes with different set of filters option. While it is technically not impossible to add your own digital filters, it involves advanced programming and hardware that only a small handful of manufacturers ever bother to do. In short, it is possible but not practical - hence why those filters option on BTR7 and BTR5 are not something FiiO adds to the system but actually already comes pre-installed by the DAC chip maker.

We're making excuses for audio companies now? You're trying to tell me that in all of China they can't find capable programmers? Stop it. Their one, single job is to produce audio equipment, so do that one thing right.

Maybe they over-engineered the BTR7 and as an effort to keep it from cannibalizing profits for their higher end gear they crippled the software. Maybe they're just cheap and don't want to pay specialized programmers.

If people are satisfied with this thing I respect that but I'm sending mine back today, they really dropped the ball here.

 

[Orfik]

Duplicate

 

[rlw6534]

The DAC chip inside BTR7 only comes with two selectable filter options (which are all you got in the setting). BTR5's DAC comes with different set of filters option. While it is technically not impossible to add your own digital filters, it involves advanced programming and hardware that only a small handful of manufacturers ever bother to do. In short, it is possible but not practical - hence why those filters option on BTR7 and BTR5 are not something FiiO adds to the system but actually already comes pre-installed by the DAC chip maker.

To clarify, the original BTR5 used a different DAC chip (9218). The later BTR5 version is the same as the BTR7 (9219).

 

[newworld666]

We're making excuses for audio companies now? You're trying to tell me that in all of China they can't find capable programmers? Stop it. Their one, single job is to produce audio equipment, so do that one thing right.

Maybe they over-engineered the BTR7 and as an effort to keep it from cannibalizing profits for their higher end gear they crippled the software. Maybe they're just cheap and don't want to pay specialized programmers.

If people are satisfied with this thing I respect that but I'm sending mine back today, they really dropped the ball here.

Though I think the BTR7 has real issues, which makes this device a real pain to use (becomes hot, anorexic battery, only one PEQ user profile) => I can't agree with you, as I really think FIIO is probably one of the audio company, if not the only one on the market, really able to react very fast and could solve all firmware issues in a rather short time as I could experience with the FIIO M9, M11, M17 ... FIIO is very far ahead A&K, who took 14 months before fixing a terrible Wifi drop issue which made the Kann Alpha unusable in Europe.

 

[Orfik]

Though I think the BTR7 has real issues, which makes this device a real pain to use (becomes hot, anorexic battery, only one PEQ user profile) => I can't agree with you, as I really think FIIO is probably one of the audio company, if not the only one on the market, really able to react very fast and could solve all firmware issues in a rather short time as I could experience with the FIIO M9, M11, M17 ... FIIO is very far ahead A&K, who took 14 months before fixing a terrible Wifi drop issue which made the Kann Alpha unusable in Europe.

Look at the models you just listed. I'm sure they are ready and willing to provide a great user experience for their higher end DAPs. And it seems that in the meantime they're happy to strip their BTR software, which was already horrible compared to Qudelix, down to its bare bones. Once again, there are no excuses for this, especially when they've demonstrated that they can do better.

 

[ClieOS]

We're making excuses for audio companies now? You're trying to tell me that in all of China they can't find capable programmers? Stop it. Their one, single job is to produce audio equipment, so do that one thing right.

Maybe they over-engineered the BTR7 and as an effort to keep it from cannibalizing profits for their higher end gear they crippled the software. Maybe they're just cheap and don't want to pay specialized programmers.

If people are satisfied with this thing I respect that but I'm sending mine back today, they really dropped the ball here.

So you want FiiO to reinvent the wheel (*which mind you that they have never done so before, never promised everyone they will do it at anytime and never really has any real reason to do so anyway since perfectly working wheels have been supplied to them by their part supplier) but because if they don't do it, then they are 'making excuse'? Ok, that sounds perfectly reasonable.

In that case, I'll also want my BTR7 to make breakfast in the morning, cook my dinner and perhaps sometime also help with quantum computing to solve world hunger. That sounds reasonable to me.

 

[Orfik]

So you want FiiO to reinvent the wheel (*which mind you that they have never done so before, never promised everyone they will do it at anytime and never really has any real reason to do so anyway since perfectly working wheels have been supplied to them by their part supplier) but because if they don't do it, then they are 'making excuse'? Ok, that sounds perfectly reasonable.

In that case, I'll also want my BTR7 to make breakfast in the morning, cook my dinner and perhaps sometime also help with quantum computing to solve world hunger. That sounds reasonable to me.

Reinvent the wheel? Their own old model in this exact line is a better product than this one. We're in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" territory.

And if the onus is on the dac makers, maybe don't buy components that perform worse than the ones you were already working with.

 

[ClieOS]

Pp

Reinvent the wheel? Their own old model in this exact line is a better product than this one. We're in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" territory.

And if the onus is on the dac makers, maybe don't buy components that perform worse than the ones you were already working with.

If you feel strongly that way, just don't buy it / return it. No one is obligated to support products / manufacturers they don't like. But no one needs to agree with everyone else either. let's market decides the outcome of it all.

 

[Orfik]

If you feel strongly that way, just don't buy it / return it. No one is obligated to support products / manufacturers they don't like. But no one needs to agree with everyone else either. let's market decides the outcome of it all.

I am returning it. I'm also stating my opinion on it. I like FiiO, they're one of my favorite companies to date so it's a shame when they drop the ball like this. I'm not condemning them for it, but anyone telling people the BTR7 feels like a finished product is simply lying.

Hopefully they can improve it with FW upgrades down the line but right now it's not great and for current BTR5 owners it's not worth the upgrade.

 

[ClieOS]

I am returning it. I'm also stating my opinion on it. I like FiiO, they're one of my favorite companies to date so it's a shame when they drop the ball like this. I'm not condemning them for it, but anyone telling people the BTR7 feels like a finished product is simply lying.

Hopefully they can improve it with FW upgrades down the line but right now it's not great and for current BTR5 owners it's not worth the upgrade.

As opposite to you, i do feel like my BTR7 is almost a finished product (*it works the way I want and hasn't crashed on me once). That doesn't means I don't think it can use more polishing firmware wise. Don't forget BTR7 is only released a few weeks ago, so I am sure we will see more update in the short future as bug are discovered / reported. Even if you think BTR5 series is better / more finished - don't forget it was released back in 2019 and took a year or two of firmware update to get to what it is today. It didn't magically became finished on the first day of release

However, my original post that you quoted is not about firmware update / bugfix - it is about adding an new feature that is both technically challenging and impractical, which I have given the reason why. But somehow you seems to mistook it as a statement that I don't think any and all firmware update / bugfix is necessary. That's simply not true. I am only referring to the issue of adding new digital filter and why it is not likely to happen.

 

[scracy]

I am returning it. I'm also stating my opinion on it. I like FiiO, they're one of my favorite companies to date so it's a shame when they drop the ball like this. I'm not condemning them for it, but anyone telling people the BTR7 feels like a finished product is simply lying.

Hopefully they can improve it with FW upgrades down the line but right now it's not great and for current BTR5 owners it's not worth the upgrade.

I cannot agree with you there, I had an OG BTR5 and the BTR7 out performs it in every way, since I don't use PEQ I have zero regrets buying the BTR7.

 

[Orfik]

I cannot agree with you there, I had an OG BTR5 and the BTR7 out performs it in every way, since I don't use PEQ I have zero regrets buying the BTR7.

I don't use EQ either. I can see how a person could prefer the BTR7 and it does exceed the BTR5 in some areas, but at the end of the day it's not that close to me.

I went back and forth between them for hours last night because I was hoping the BTR7 would make up for its poor software, size and awkward, angular body with the sound quality, and I found out that it doesn't even sound as good to my ears.

The soundstage is wider but instrument separation isn't quite as good and the treble is softer so percussive sounds don't hit as sharply as they do on the BTR5. At least using the minimum phase slow rolloff filter which doesn't exist on the BTR7.

Again, I can see how other people could prefer it, but I was happy to see it go back where it came from today.